Terrance Line Book 2: Twin Paradox
by Asuterisuku
Summary: The border between dreams and memories begins to fade... Now Timothy Line will have to fight to discover his true identity. The sequel to Timelines. Rated T for violence and strong language.
1. Prologue

**Okay, so I know the first story isn't quite finished yet(expect a big ending) but my mind is nagging me to get on with it, and I've decided that the story is non-linear enough to start on the second part now. Here's a small taste.**

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PROLOGUE

The Wings of a Dream

July, 2006

There was fighting. All around me was the bloody and brutal carnage of a full-on battle. There were guns blazing in every direction, blades drawn and flashing. The scene was utter chaos. It seemed I had been doing more than my fair share of killing myself: My blade was covered, and my body was stiff with drying and dried blood, with new splatters constantly accumulating.

I felt like some kind of monster.

Mind you, I didn't look anywhere near as much of a monster as some of those around me. I remember glimpsing such horrors as a slightly blue skinned boy in scuba gear that was dripping water, a girl covered with fur who had leathery flaps connecting her arms to her body, and worst of all, the werewolf-like creatures with sharp claws and pointy teeth.

I say they were the worst, because they were the ones against whom I was fighting.

And they seemed to have the most guns.

It wasn't long before I was distracted by a young girl, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. My ears registered another shot. I was so stunned by the sudden appearance of the child that I hadn't noticed anything regarding the shot I'd heard until I'd looked down.

There was a gaping hole in my chest, with blood quickly spreading further and further. I tasted blood, and I could see the ground fast approaching to greet me with arms wide open, as I rushed to greet it...

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**This will be the first in a long line of ties between both stories that will be seen before they intersect. I don't want to give too much away. you'll see what I mean in the coming chapters. I understand that there isn't enough to review yet, but there will be. Yes, there will.**


	2. Chapters 1 to 3

_**Part 1**_

**Dreams vs. Memories**

1

I woke up in my bed, and sat bolt upright, screaming. I was breathing hard, my palms were sweating, and I desperately had to pee. I calmed down and groped for my glasses before going to the washroom to relieve myself. I'm legally blind. Without the aid of glasses or contact lenses, everything's just a colourful blur. _It was only a dream,_ I thought. Or was it? I could still feel the pain of a bullet in my chest.

Of course, I'd had dreams like that before. I even made a story out of them. They were just so vivid that I could feel every emotion, and every physical sensation as if it were actually happening. In fact, it was because of one of these dreams, in which I was soaring kilometers above the ground by my own power that I made one of my greatest inventions, the Hawkwing gliding prosthetic. Of course, it's too heavy to really gain altitude(more recently I've been attempting experiments with carbon nano-tubing in order to fix that) but if I already have some height, I can remain airborne as long as I don't hit anything.

This dream, however, was different. There was an element of fear in it, along with confusion, and — most disturbingly — pain. I tried to sort through the images as I returned to my bedroom. I looked at the clock on my headboard; 3:38. No one would expect me up for hours yet: I usually slept until noon, if not later. And yet, try as I might, I could not get back to sleep again. I lay in bed for an hour before finally giving up, getting some pants on, and going to my personal lab.

The lab was my pride and joy. Across one wall there were various potions and concoctions of various effects, including medicines, poisons, antidotes for various stings and bites from creatures from around the globe(even wasps. A single sting from a local wasp can kill me; I'm terribly allergic, I'm afraid) and an experimental design involving a unique combination of chemicals and nanotechnology which would allow one to bypass muscles and nerves by creating temporary replacements, essentially(hopefully) rendering the user immortal for a short time. Along another wall, there were a few genetic experiments — simple things like inducing albinism in mice, or giving them extra tails, and so forth — and my prized Hawkwing prosthetic. The remaining wall was lined with the various tools and chemicals normally seen in a lab, as well as some that aren't so common. And to think, all this in the hands of a guy who's only fifteen.

That's right. Not fifty, fifteen.

I'm Timothy Line, and I am a teenage super genius.

2

As I was saying, I've had these dreams before. But never were any of them this bad. And so, I started to get worried. In the center of my lab, there's an MRI(Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine for the in-depth scanning of bodily tissues. I usually use it for tests for possible side effects of my genetic experimentation(again, nothing on the scale of humans. That's just unethical), but now that I think there might be something wrong with my brain and, well, I just happen to have the perfect equipment to test that.

I attached the scanner to my laptop and lied underneath it as I started the scan, staying still for a minute as the machine essentially read my brain. When the scan was done, I was unsurprised to find that it differed very little from what I was expecting. There was something, but... Nah, that couldn't mean anything. As you may expect, my brain has always been highly developed, but one part... It seems to be even larger than it should be to scale with the rest of the matrix of tissue and neurons.

As I exited the lab, to try yet again to get more sleep, I was greeted by the face of my little brother, Ben. I wondered briefly just what he could be doing at this time of the night. He's a little bit pudgy, and tall for a thirteen year old boy, but he's also surprisingly strong for someone who just sits around ninety percent of the time. I would definitely want him on my side in a fight. "Couldn't sleep?" he asked. I was tired, and so just grunted in reply. "All right, I'll bite. What did you dream about this time?"

I sighed, knowing full well that I would not be able to get out of this conversation. "I think I died earlier," I told him, in all seriousness. I felt that it was finally time to tell someone about the dreams. "I'm not sure, though. I could see a battle raging around me, and then I got shot. You know how you usually wake up without feeling pain?" He nodded. "That didn't happen. Even now, I feel like there's a bullet in my chest, even though I know that it's impossible. Am I crazy?"

I wasn't expecting an answer, and so was surprised when I got one. "Yeah, you're crazy." I looked at him in confusion, as he continued. "I am too, as is everyone else in the goddamn world." I let his language slide. It wasn't the time to be scolding anyone about anything. "What you've gotta do is find just the right kind of crazy for yourself, and stick with it." When I ran that sentence through in my mind later, I found that it made sense. After all, no two minds in the world think exactly alike, with the two of us being a perfect example: Ben is a more artistic thinker, who tries to find a creative way of doing everything; he's not usually this deep. I, on the other hand, go with by the book logic, preferring ordered situations to chaotic ones.

As it was, I just stared blankly at him as I returned to my room and looked at the clock. 4:05 The brain scan and our little talk had taken up almost thirty minutes! I groaned as I set my glasses on the bedstand and shut off the lamp, not getting to sleep for yet another hour.

3

I awoke to the sound of a crash coming from upstairs. _That's unusual,_ I thought. It worried me. What worried me even more was that the dogs weren't barking. In fact, there was no more noise at all. I looked at the clock. 11:59. I calmed down a little. Maybe everyone had gone out for the day. I dragged on some pants and went upstairs. I noted that the family vehicle, a white GMC Suburban, was missing from the driveway, This supported my theory that everyone was out.

When I got to the upper floor, there was a hole in the wall. A big one. The only thing I could think of that could make a hole that big was if a person ran full tilt and faster into it. But when I looked around, there was no one there. At least no one I could see. The next few seconds went by as a blur, accompanied by an odd sound, like the ruffling of feathers. Someone had gotten behind me and cupped my mouth, roughly enough to knock off my glasses.

All I could remember after that point was pain. something was boring it's way into my mind, causing pain so intense that I thought my head would explode. I lasted about five seconds that felt like eternity before I blacked out.

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**So there you have it. The first few chapters of part 2 of a series of I don't know how many. I'll update Timelines soon, but in the meantime, why don't you take the time to leave a review. Remember, I accept all forms of criticism. As long as I get feedback, I'm happy.**


	3. Chapters 4 to 6

4

I was visited by many dreams during the short time unconscious, all images of a past I had never experienced. Dreams of fighting, of flight, of friendship and of pain, but there was one that stood out to me most of all.

_I was standing in the middle of a hallway in what looked (and smelled) like a hospital. _What am I doing here?_ I thought, before noticing the four men in the hallway, all dressed in white, and all seeming to exude an aura of malice. Well, all but one, anyway. It was then I realized that I had no control. My body was moving on its own, with stealth I never thought I was capable of. I could only watch as my body clapped my hand around the mouth of the guy in the back and pulled hard, until I heard a crack. It was undoubtedly the sound of the man's neck snapping. My body then proceeded to do the same to the next two men. It was all done without having been heard by the man in front._

_My body then shocked me even more when it drew a gun from somewhere behind me and pressed it to the remaining man. I braced mentally for the imminent shot._

_It didn't come._

_Instead, I involuntarily said, "You will not touch the boy you came for. Nor will you go back to Itex." I had heard that name before. Of course I had. They supplied a good portion of my lab equipment. I continued. "Instead, you are going to run, to the most remote place you can find, and keep running." Nothing more was said. The man at gunpoint simply nodded… And disappeared…_

I woke up screaming for the second time that day. I was bound to a chair in a room so dark that I couldn't see anything at all but the light emerging from the space in between the door and the floor. I could hear voices emitting from that very same crack, including one very much similar to my own, which said, "He's awake."

5

I hoped, even prayed that that voice wasn't talking about me. After all, it's impossible, after all, to be in two places simultaneously; this could only be a dream. _That's it, I'm dreaming. I'm…_

Another voice started speaking as I ran this thought through my head several times over. "Great," is said. "Now you can fix the mess you made when you brought us back." It sounded a little gruff, yet a little too attractive to be human. And yet, it wasn't wholly unfamiliar.

"I didn't make a mess, I fixed one," the first voice retorted. "I returned to normal something that was never meant to be. Just be thankful that you still exist."

"But that's just it. Something is still wrong, and we know how to fix it." He seemed a little bit edgy, like he had been awake for days on end. "I brought him here because he can do just that."

"But if we do that, we'll make wrong again everything we came back to make right."

"I don't care!" the second voice was growing more and more agitated. "Itex still stands, and he can fix that!"

"Enough, Aaron." So it wasn't who I thought it was. "He's going home, and that's where it will end." _Will it?_ I had to wonder. The voices outside had stopped, so I took the opportunity to ask a question of my own, shouting so as to be made heard. "Who are you, and where the hell am I?" Okay, make that two questions. But no one came, and the light vanished from under the door.

With nothing to see, and a hell of a lot to think about, I decided to take the time to sleep. After all, who knows? Maybe my dreams will reveal something new.

They didn't get the chance. I never got to sleep. Within five minutes, I could hear crashing, gunfire, explosions, the works.

It seemed my dream was coming true. _Unless this IS the dream, _I thought, right before the door crashed inward. Lying on the ground in front of me was one of those wolf-like things from the dream during the night before. And standing in the doorway was my brother.

6

I should rather say he looked like my brother, but there were several key differences. While he had the same face, the youth in front of me was leaner, and less, well, fat. He looked like he had been working out. His eyes were different, in both expression and colour, but in every other regard, the boy was my brother.

He walked over to where I was sitting and took out a knife. It didn't look like anything special, other than that it was sharpened to the finest edge I had ever seen. "You know," he said in the gruff voice I heard earlier. So this was Aaron. "He was right," he continued as he sawed off the rope on my wrists. "I never should have dragged you into this."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. I wondered what could have brought about this change of heart.

"This is too dangerous for someone like you. We should have just fixed this on our own." He finished on my wrists and started working on my ankles.

"What the hell is going on here?"

"We're under attack," he said as he finished cutting my bonds. It felt good to stand up. "There's no time to explain, just run."

And I ran.

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**And right into the action. It actualluy took way quicker to do that than I thought it would, and in the end, I know the cliffhanger is going to kill you. Muahaha. Don't forget to review!**


	4. Chapters 7 to 9

**It's not often that I write through the point of view of a normal human being(even if he is super-intelligent) so this story's actually turning out really interesting for me. Who knew that a normal person could be so fun to write? In any case, there will be some really freaky stuff happening within the next few chapters. Things that will change my "normal" person's life forever. Hah. Now you're curious. *chuckles evilly* Enjoy!**

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7

The sounds of explosions and the sirens of emergency vehicles were fading in the distance when I finally slowed my pace. I was at that point wandering blindly in a part of town that I was completely unfamiliar with, wearing nothing but a worn out pair of jeans. Worse, my family was probably home by then, wondering where the hell I was. This was shaping up to be some kind of a day. I got close enough to a sign to be able to read it, though I had to climb the post to do it. Not an easy task when you can't see and you're in bare feet. Apparently I was on Townline. Good. I wasn't far from home. Confident that I could find my way, I set off.

Despite my blindness, it was a rather uneventful trip home. At times my vision grew blurrier, but I attributed that to fatigue (I HAD been up pretty late last night, after all), and I was almost struck twice by an oncoming car that I'd failed to see coming, and stepped out onto the road and front of. I'm glad the drivers had both good reflexes and Anti-lock Braking Systems; otherwise they WOULD have hit me.

I finally did get home in one piece though. All I wanted to do at that point was to collapse into the warm embrace of my bed. But of course, I was right. My parents WERE home, they WERE wondering where the hell I was, and they were definitely NOT happy.

8

"Where were you, and why the hell is there a hole in my wall?" That was my mother. Elizabeth Line was a portly woman, with neck length brown hair. She was really rather strong for a woman her age, as I was then finding out first hand. Her worried embrace was practically choking me.

"Mom, you're hurting me," I choked out. She did notice, and held me out at arm's length, before hugging me again, with much less force this time.

That was when my dad stepped in. "Please tell me that you were nowhere near those explosions we heard earlier." Gordon Line ran his own delivery business and it though it didn't bring in much, it payed the bills. At six foot even, he was generally considered a tall man, though he was still dwarfed by his oldest child (me), and the younger was coming up fast. In any case, he had the kind of eyes that commanded respect, and thankfully his question was one that I could answer this time.

"No, Dad. I was nowhere near those explosions, though I could certainly hear them." I saw relief cross both of their faces, but only for an instant. "Do either of you know what the hell is going on? And where's my brother?"

"Ben's in his room, playing with his Xcube thingamajigger." That's my mom. Technologically illiterate. I was tempted to coin a new word to describe her: 'Techlexic.' But I never got around to it. I always had other things to do. "And no, we don't know a thing about what's going on. Probably some gang thing that got out of hand." I'll say. "What I really want to know is why you were wandering around out there half naked with no glasses. Here they are, by the way."

"Thanks," I said, taking them and putting them on before getting to the hard part. It was the part that involved lying to my mother.

9

You know how they say that the best lie is at least partly the truth? Well that is really only half true in itself. There are many different ways to lie. Some would say that the best lie is one so ridiculous that the recipient thinks it could only be true. Others say to be subtle, and intentionally keep your lie within reasonable limits. My way has everything to do with emotion. After all, you'll probably get caught if either your voice is too flat or too full of emotion.

"Really, I don't know why I was out there." I was going for a blend of certainty, and confusion. It was the kind of tone that would set just about anyone off balance. "One minute, I was sleeping snug in my bed, the next I woke up in the middle of the street somewhere down Townline." This type of lie, the omission, usually had the highest chance of success. What I omitted, of course, was my kidnapping, and my brief imprisonment by two people who looked and sounded oddly similar to myself and my brother. After all, who would believe that?

In any case, she seemed to accept the lie (though she still looked worried) and backed off, taking my dad with her. I took this as my cue to get the hell to my room, and catch up on the sleep that the day's events had taken from me.

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**You may have been a bit bored with this one, but remember: Freaky stuff soon. Read and Review! Both positive feedback and negative are accepted.**


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